Online education system and method

• US 20020146674A1
• Filed: 04/10/2001
• Published: 10/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ChildCare Education Institute LLC (Brentwood Associates)
• Original Assignee: Professional Training And Consulting, Inc.
• Inventors: Betz, Michael J., Nalesnik, Christopher, Ganza, William
• Granted Patent: US 6,928,260 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/350
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

A method and system for online education. The system of the present invention includes an educator provider system and at least one student system connected via a network means, such as the Internet, for bidirectional communication therebetween. The educator provider system is capable of transmitting, and the at least one student system is capable of receiving, at least one lesson for education purposes. In one embodiment, the lesson is interactive and includes at least one audio file used to control the pace of the presentation of the lesson to a student at the at least one student system. In another embodiment, the educator provider system also includes a mechanism for generating a lesson completion record and/or an electronic certificate of completion after a student has completed the lesson. The lesson completion record and/or electronic certificate may be transmitted to the at least one student system and/or to an education authority system, indicating and providing proof to the student and/or the education authority, respectively, that the student has completed the lesson. According to one embodiment of the method of the present invention, the pace of the presentation of the lesson to a student is controlled by playing of the at least one audio file at the at least one student system. In another embodiment of the method of the present invention, the lesson completion record and/or electronic certificate of completion is transmitted by the educator provider system and received by the student system at which the student completed the lesson and/or the education authority that has an interest in completion of the lesson by the student. By the use of the system and method of the present invention, an education authority can be assured that a student attends the online lesson for the requisite minimum time period, and that the student satisfactorily completes the lesson.

Claims

1. An online education system, comprising:

an educator provider system for transmission of at least one interactive lesson comprising an audio file;

at least one student system capable of receiving the at least one lesson and presenting the at least one lesson to at least one student;

network means for connecting the educator provider system with the at least one student system in bidirectional communication;

such that when the at least one lesson is transmitted over the network means from the educator provider system to the at least one student system, the presentation of the at least one lesson is controlled by an audio controlling means based on the received audio file.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the educator provider system is capable of generating the at least one lesson.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an education authority system connected to the network means.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the education authority system is capable of generating the at least one lesson.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the educator provider system includes means for generating an electronic certificate for transmission over the network means.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one student system includes a printer, means for receiving the electronic certificate, and means for printing the received electronic certificate on the printer.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the educator provider system includes means for generating a course completion record for transmission over the network means to the education authority system.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the network means comprises a global network.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the global network comprises the Internet.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one student system comprises an Internet browser.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the audio controlling means comprises a browser plug-in suitable for use in streaming audio content over the Internet.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for interrupting the at least one lesson.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising means for tracking the point at which the at least one lesson was interrupted, and means for resuming the interrupted lesson at such recorded point.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one lesson comprises a plurality of presentations, at least one of the plurality of presentations having at least one audio file associated therewith.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one of the plurality of presentations comprises a test for the student.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive lesson further comprises at least one video file, the system further comprising:

a video controlling means for controlling presentation of the lesson based on the received at least one video file.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the lesson completion record includes a unique course instance identifier.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the lesson completion record comprises an electronic certificate; and

the at least one student means includes means for printing the electronic certificate.

21. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

an education authority system connected to the network means for receipt of the lesson completion record.

22. A method of online education of at least one lesson, the method comprising the steps of:

providing the online education system of claim 1;

transmitting one of the at least one lessons from the educator provider system to one of the at least one student systems;

receiving and presenting the transmitted lesson at the student system; and

controlling the pace of the presentation of the received lesson with the received audio file.

23. A method of online education of at least one lesson, the method comprising the steps of:

providing the online education system of claim 14;

transmitting one of the at least one lessons from the educator provider system to one of the at least one student systems; and

receiving and presenting the transmitted lesson at the student system while controlling the pace of presentation of each of the presentations of the transmitted lesson based on the audio file associated with that presentation.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the completion record comprises a certificate of completion, and wherein the student system on which the lesson was completed further comprises means for printing, the method further comprising the step of:

printing the certificate of completion with the printing means.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the online education system further comprises an education authority system connected to the network, the method further comprising the step of:

transmitting the completion record from the educator provider system to the education authority system.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising, after the step of transmitting the lesson completion record, the step of:

accepting the lesson completion record.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising, after the step of accepting the lesson completion record, the step of:

granting course credit to the student.

17. An online education system, comprising:

an educator provider system for transmission of at least one interactive lesson comprising at least one video file;

at least one student system capable of receiving the at least one lesson and presenting the lesson to at least one student;

network means for connecting the educator provider system with the at least one student system in bidirectional communication; and

a video controlling means operably connected to the network means, such that when the at least one lesson is transmitted over the network means from the educator provider system to that at least one student system, the presentation or the at least one lesson is controlled by the video controlling means based on the received video file.

24. A method of online education of at least one lesson, the method comprising the steps of:

providing the online education system of claim 17;

transmitting one of the at least one lessons from the educator provider system to one of the at least one student systems;

receiving and presenting the transmitted lesson at the student system; and

controlling the pace of the presentation of the received lesson with the video controlling means.

18. A system for online education comprising:

an educator provider system for transmission of at least one lesson and for transmission of a lesson completion record;

at least one student system capable of receiving the at least one lesson and presenting the at least one lesson to at least one student; and

network means connected to the educator provider system and the at least one student system in bidirectional communication;

such that after completion of the transmission of the at least one lesson over the network means from the education provider system to the at least one student system, the lesson completion record is transmitted to the at least one student system.

25. A method of online education of at least one lesson, the method comprising the steps of:

providing the online education system of claim 18;

transmitting one of the at least one lessons from the educator provider system to one of the at least one student systems;

receiving and presenting the transmitted lesson at the student system until the transmitted lesson is completed;

generating the lesson completion record with the educator provider system; and

transmitting the lesson completion record from the educator provider system to the student system on which the lesson was completed.

28. A method of online education of at least one lesson, the method comprising the steps of:

providing an online education system including

an educator provider system for transmission of at least one lesson and for transmissions of a lesson completion record,

a student system capable of receiving the at least one lesson and presenting the at least one lesson to a student using the student system,

an education authority system capable of receipt of the lesson completion record; and

a network means operably connected to the educator provider system, the student system, and the education authority system;

transmitting one of the at least one lessons from the educator provider system to the student system;

receiving and presenting the transmitted lesson at the student system until the transmitted lesson is completed;

generating with the educator provider system the lesson completion record; and

transmitting the lesson completion record from the educator provider system to the education authority system.